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`Spencer and Wollman remain succinct and clear in their critical introduction to the most influential nationalism theories. The book is well structured, the arguments clearly presented. Its format makes it a great textbook for all seeking a deeper understanding of...
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Praise for the First Edition:
`I can't think of a book in media studies that handles so well the diversity of perspectives and issues that Stevenson addresses. Whether reconstructing Marxism or deconstructing postmodernism, tackling the pleasures of soap opera or the...
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This penetrating book raises questions about how power operates in contemporary society. It explains how the speed of information flows has eroded the separate space needed for critical reflection. It argues that there is no longer an 'outside' to the global flows of...
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"Bourdieu's work is formidable - the journey is tough. Follow this French foreign legion - take an apple, take a hanky - but take this book".
- Peter Beilharz , La Trobe University
"A good range of recent examples from popular culture are used to flesh out the...
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In this insightful book, one of America's leading commentators on culture and society turns his gaze upon cinematic race relations, examining the relationship between film, race and culture.
Norman K Denzin argues that the cinema, like society, treats all persons as...
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Individualization argues that we are in the midst of a fundamental change in the nature of society and politics. This change hinges around two processes: globalization and individualization. The book demonstrates that individualization is a structural characteristic of...
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Introduction to Politics and Society comprehensively demonstrates how key theoretical and concepts in political science have foretold, rationalized and shaped politics in the contemporary world.
Students will discover the meaning of `power', `authority', `coercion',...
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Written by one of the most distinguished commentators in the field, this book asks why we see some bodies as 'monstrous' or 'vulnerable' and examines what this tells us about ideas of bodily 'normality' and bodily perfection.
Drawing on feminist theories of the body,...
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`Written with clarity and sophistication, it is not just an original argument about relationships of nature and culture, but also a useful text' - Keith Tester, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth
Is humanity and society separable from nature? Modern...
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`The Sociological Ambition is a superb book... It is beautifully written, expertly edited and renders complex and original ideas entirely accessible... This is a modern classic' - Journal of Contemporary Religion
`For all social scientists who are fed up with...
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This book examines the embodied nature of people's experience in, and of, the modern world. It is therefore part of the deep-seated 'turn towards the body'. However, it is partly critical of this development in as much as it affirms that
the sociology of the body has...
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'An extremely accessible, well structured and imaginative reading of market and social theory in terms of the myth of the Wild West frontier'
New Formations
This book, written by the author of the celebrated volume Six Guns and Society, explains why the myth of the...
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This penetrating book re-examines `the project of modernity'. It seeks to oppose the abstract, idealized vision of modernity with an alternative `ethnographic' understanding. The book defends an approach to modernity that situates it as embedded in particular and...
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This comprehensive book provides an indispensable introduction to the most significant figures in contemporary social theory. Grounded strongly in the European tradition, the profiles include Michel Foucault, J[um]urgen Habermas, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Pierre...
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Social Theory in the Real World is concerned with illustrating the practical benefits of social theory. Many students find it hard to relate the real insights provided by social theory to their real life experiences, and many lecturers struggle to demonstrate the...
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In this book, one of the leading social theorists and cultural commentators of modern times, turns his gaze on consumption. George Ritzer, author of the famous McDonaldization Thesis, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and...
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Society and Culture reclaims the classical heritage, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the promise of sociology in the 21st century and asks whether the `cultural turn' has made the study of society redundant.
Sociologists have objected to the rise of cultural...
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George Ritzer is one of the leading social and cultural commentators of the present day. In this essential new book he considers some of the main tendencies in contemporary social theory. Included here are Ritzer's latest reflections on the uses and misuses of...
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Sport is the most universal feature of popular culture. It crosses language barriers and slices through national boundaries, attracting both spectators and participants, to a common lingua franca of passions, obsessions and desires.
This book brings to light the...
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Jean Baudrillard is generally recognized as one of the most important and provocative contemporary social theorists. But in the English speaking world, his reputation is largely based on books published after the 1960s, as he moved towards becoming the premier...
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